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I started riding MTB some time during 2006 with a cheapish 400€ Merida bike and even with such crappy bike I discovered the joys of riding the trails in the forests of Tampere, Finland. In 2007 I got myself an 2006 Avanti Hammer HT bike, which at the time weighed almost 14kg . Didn't know about anything of the whole WW scene at the time, but soon by looking at some other friends expensive bikes I of course yearned for the better and lighter. When I saw a photo of a black-red schemed 2007 Spec Epic S-Works bike, I knew I had to get one some day, when I could afford spending such huge loads of money into a bicycle. Being a student, I was thinking this wouldn't happen ever.

Then, in the autumn of 2008 I found one hardly used for sale. I had never ever even seen one live - there are not many of those in Finland I guess. Anyway, it was my size and with a quite competitive price. Counted my pennies (well, cents ) and figured I could just and just afford it. On the same night I had driven 300km to fetch the bike (with car ) and was a happy new owner of a 2007 Spec Epic S-Works. Oh, you should have seen the joy on my face

I took the bike onto a scale, and the weight was whooping 11.4 kilos. But, there were many many parts I could start removing the grams from. The handlebar was a 685mm wide Next SL, with which the bike hardly could fit inside my apartment . The 11-34 cassette weighed 403 grams and so on. Other parts included RF Next XC crankset, X.0 Gripshifts, X.7 rear derailleur, Sram Rival front der, Thomson Elite seatpost, some San Marco saddle, Juicy three brakes with freaking heavy rotors, a Manitou R7 MRD Absolute fork and a 1500-g'ish AM Classic wheelset. Tubes were over 150g each. With the parts I could change from my Avanti Hammer, I got the weight down to 10.6 kilos.

Here's a photo of the bike from september of 2008, at about this 10.6 kilos:

..to be continued...

Last edited by px on Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.

One of the first upgrades bought were of course quick releases and then also the FD. For less than 30 euro I got a Campy Record Compact FD which I wanted to experience a bit with. It happened to work perfectly even with triple chainrings, once I had dremelled the derailleur a bit. The weight for the der was 87 grams at the time. I didn't even need the limit screws at all, since a double FD tuned to triple was using kinda 101% of its capacity For the derailleur to work better, I also switched the chainrings from 22-32-44 (pictured) to 24-32-42. The FD was able to handle the 18t difference, but the previous 22t was too much. At the time I was already using a modified 11-27 Dura-Ace cassette. 24-27 as the smallest gear combination was enough for me to finish even a tough 180km race.

Following updates included switching the seatpost from Elite to Masterpiece, which saved me 60 grams and also changing pedals to Exustar PM28 titanium ones, minus 115 grams. The most awaited upgrade were the brakes though. Those Juicy threes, while working extremely well, were quite of anchor. Formula R1's were recently released, but the normal version was quite dull-looking and especially those grayish hoses were not compatible at all with the look of the rest of the bike. So, I had to get the red ones, which wasn't going to be an easy project. Finally I worked it out anyway, and once again this student had to live quite a feeble life for some months

So, next up it was the wheelset. I wanted to have a wheelset with durability first, since this bike was going to be used in tough terrain, not just on usual easy XC races not to even mention making it a display bike

So, I finally ended up with ZTR Olympic (wanted to try tubeless later) with CX-Ray and King/Kong. I still have my doubts regarding the hubs, but we'll see. So far they've worked flawlessy. And at least they're good looking Total weight for the set with Stan's yellow tape is 1371 grams, so I didn't save more than 120g from my AC wheelset. (They're still being used in my current HT bike with new bearings)

The bike in the summer of 2009:

With light Rocket Rons, bolt tuning and such I was reaching 9.6 kilos. Here's the bike during a group ride in Tampere, september 2009:

Last edited by px on Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I recently ordered another set of red R1's (for my hardtail training bike) and they came with carbon levers. A couple of days ago I took them off, weighed and installed them to my racing bike. The difference was 5.1g per lever, so a total of 10.2g off from my racing bike.

So, the current situation now in the beginning of february, 2010. The Brain shock finally stopped functioning, so it's being sent to service. And, since Finland doesn't have an authorized service point, it will go to Denmark. We'll see how long it takes and how much it will cost

Anyway, new Lightning crankset is finally on the way, as are new custom ti chainrings from Mattias.

Here's the bike without crankset, pedals, chain and RD at my LBS:

It's also got a bit heavier tyres and tubes installed there. Chain will add approximately 230 grams, new crankset under 600g, pedals 186.7g, the RD ~167g, and from the tyres one can substract about 300 grams. Also it's got a 11-28 SLX cassette, which is about 50-60g heavier than my 11-27 Dura-ace. So, we'll be sitting at around 9.0 to 9.1 kilos and the goal is ever closer to be reached. Stay tuned!

Last edited by px on Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The real weight of the bike is usually about 100g more than the theoretical list, so I've still probably got to shave off some grams to reach 9 kilos. One thing I'm thinking of, is changing the fork to this new 2010 DT Swiss sub-1200g XRC race fork. That's a bit expensive though, and I haven't heard too much positive comments on the previous versions. And besides, I like the look and functionality of my red R7 (apart from the rim brake mounts). Also, the Specialized "double" seat binder is quite heavy, I wonder whether it can be replaced with any normal 34.9mm clamp?

If you got any advice which parts could be lighter, durable and even somewhat affordable, please let me know!

Thanks! Happy you like it. It really is slow progress and process since I really cannot afford buying everything at once. And also I love speculating, examining, rumours of new parts, reading thoroughly user reviews and comments on parts' durability and so on. Almost the best part in the whole WW:ism - the only better parts being opening the parcel and placing the items on scale and installing them on the bike thereafter Yet, the total amount of money spent on the bike is still clearly less than what buying a new bike would have required!

range wrote:Hey Px, great story. I also enjoyed how you told it, bit by bit. I understand the woes of being a student. Still, you've got an awesome machine there!

Thanks, I really do love it too!

743power wrote:How are the pedals holding up for you? I had to ditch the crankbros I was using and am back on spd, but they are anchors. I was eyeing up the exustars, but cant find any information on them really.

The pedals are holding up perfectly fine, although they haven't been used _that_ much yet. Anyway, imo one definitely needs to purchase the expensive titanium cleats, since the supplied brass cleats wear out extremely fast in my opinion. And, it's better to open the pedals right away and fill them with grease, there's not too much of it from the factory.